The field of this invention relates to clamping mechanisms and more particularly to a hose clamp which uses a flexible band which operates in conjunction with a worm gear to move one end with respect to the other end of the band, which ends are located in an overlapping relationship.
The use of such hose clamps are well known. It is common to select a hose clamp of a particular desired size and that particular hose clamp will operate for a certain range of diameters of hoses. For example, a given size of hose clamp will operate between a half an inch to two inches in diameter of hose. Another hose clamp will operate between two inches and four inches of hose diameter. As a result, normal installation of a hose clamp invariably results in a substantially larger than necessary clamp being employed. In other words, if the hose diameter is two and a quarter inches, it is necessary to employ a hose clamp which is capable of accommodating a four inch diameter hose. This means that during the installation there is automatically a one and three quarter inch radius slack that needs to be taken up. In terms of the actual length of the band, the distance is substantially greater and in this particular instance, something over five inches. This means that the user in installing the hose clamp must turn the worm screw until this entire slack is taken up before the hose clamp begins to tighten on the hose. This procedure is time consuming because the worm screw cannot be turned rapidly.
It would be desirable to employ a hose clamp in which during installation, the slack within the band can immediately be taken up thereby not requiring operation of the worm screw in order to take up that slack. Also, it would be further desirable to have a single hose clamp be employed for all sizes, thereby eliminating the need for different sizes of hose clamps.